Tanzania

Anyone who tells you exactly what is happening in Africa is either lying or naïve. The continent is immense, each community is complex, and each day is punctuated with moments of horror, hype, and hope – each pulling in different directions.

There are, and this is unfortunately what people often see with first glances, various shades of horror. These are the physical manifestations of being in a place where life expectancy is just a bit over half what it is in the US. In the Millenium Village we stopped to eat lunch and were quickly surrounded by children with bloated bellies, who happened to be extraordinarily polite about asking for food. We have interviewed some local women through our work with WOMEDA, and we know that husbands hitting wives is the persistent and common reality. Those same women still prefer boys when giving birth, because it still matters for status and familial success.

As a group we are constantly reminded of our wealth in contrast to the region, as we meet children who are good students but unable to afford $10 school fees. We see women and children without choices and outlets. We met a boy who had been first in his class but left school for lack of nominal funding. We see all of this happening even as several organizations do exist to help with school fees, and realize that lack of communications infrastructure and good information flow is a horror in itself. We see husbands treating wives (1st, 2nd, and 3rd) more as servants or machines than as people. We carry water feebly and weakly and realize the constant struggle for it may be a human rights abuse itself. We see children on their lunch breaks from school carrying water for an hour. And we hear of dreams from so many students – to be teachers, to be doctors, to succeed – and realize their odds at achieving their dreams are nearly zero.

And then we see all the solutions promised, all of the hype, just as people in this region see and hear day to day. We see NGOs (nongovernmental organizations = nonprofits in US parlance) promising services without following through. We interview a Muslim woman and learn of a Christian church turning her child away for assistance with school fees. We see microfinance – intended to reach the poorest of the poor – and learn that here it is structured in ways that will barely allow it to trickle into something like the upper middle class. We see imported solutions, vision without sustainability, and see more piling on of much of the same of 60 years of development history. We see governments going for quantity (more students in primary school!) without quality (no trained teachers). We met a young man who says his plan is to marry a white girl and move to the US. We see outsiders trying to come in and say they know and insiders trying to get out and away – and see that both of these efforts lack sustainability for the region’s success.

And finally, by looking carefully enough, by talking and exchanging enough, and by listening, we also understand that this region is actually brimming with energy and hope. Business here, as I wrote about several days ago, moves at a clip. Actually – and moving for a moment from the local to its interaction with the international – Chinese capitalists have realized this. The West still has a claim to much of the influence and resources in West Africa, but Chinese businesses are increasingly present – everywhere – throughout East Africa. In Kayanga a Chinese contractor built the main road. In Bukoba a Chinese factory is the main fish processing plant. In Kampala there is a Chinese community in its own right, and Chinese people and businesses positively populate the East African coast. The Chinese are investing because they see growth potential here, and they are being rewarded: cell phones in nearly every hand, expanding communications networks, busy and persistent efforts at growth, through whatever means.

Hope isn’t just in business efforts though, although I mention it first because it is the thing people often believe is most absent in Africa. Hope is also in children’s dreams in their schools. It is in them working so hard and dreaming so much that they are disciplined in school every day and they are willing to carry water at lunch break. It is in the incredibly welcoming disposition of people here, glad to have guests and share and invite others to share in their rich and deeply connected communities.

Hope exists in the women who are excited to answer questions about women’s rights, who want to share their stories, who wish to be interviewed for the radio – so that others may hear and learn about women’s rights. Hope is in the radio – locally developed news for the first time in regional history, through our community partner FADECO Radio. One woman we interviewed said, “I can see a bright future for women,” and along with her friends expressed energy for and belief in the steady march of increasing women’s rights and recognition.

Hope is in the people who are here to stay, who have committed to working with local assets and local perspectives to promote a kind of development that expands people’s options and gives them choices as to how they will live. Hope is therefore in our community partners at FADECO and WOMEDA, led by two individuals who are from the area, understand the area, have opportunities to work elsewhere, and commit to development here.

That is why we work as we do, with whom we do. We do not merely see horror and we do not wish to merely be outsider hype. We work to support what is already happening, what is already effective, on the ground and because of community partners here. Thanks to our partnership with WOMEDA and due to cooperation from many individuals in Morgantown, WV and WVU’s Center for Civic Engagement, we have been able to raise funding for home water harvesting systems for three women. And thanks to our work with Pittsburgh Cares and cooperation from many Pittsburgh, PA regional high schools, we’ve been able to raise the money necessary to support FADECO’s efforts to have a large water tank at its Eden Center for Appropriate Technology, where local farmers learn improved farming techniques and local women have access to vocational training classes. With that kind of continuous cooperation from our communities in the US, our community partners here are better able to press forward with expanding sustainable development and promoting women's rights.